Geekzone: technology news, blogs, forums
Guest
Welcome Guest.
You haven't logged in yet. If you don't have an account you can register now.


Forums › Geekzone › New Geekzone server drives
freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
80650 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 41031

Administrator
ID Verified
Trusted
Geekzone
Lifetime subscriber

#279617 28-Oct-2020 16:40
Send private message

Hi folks

 

Just a heads up - we have a couple of extra drives being plugged tomorrow (29 Oct) around 10am. Those are hot-plug drives so we shouldn't have a downtime but if we need to restart or anything we might have a short period when the site will stop responding.

 

I hope a restart will not be needed. The drives are just for backup. 




Referral links: Quic Broadband (free setup code: R587125ERQ6VE) | Samsung | AliExpress | Wise | Sharesies 

 

Support Geekzone by subscribing (browse ads-free), or making a one-off or recurring donation through PressPatron.

 

Create new topic
Dynamic
4015 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1851

ID Verified
Trusted
Lifetime subscriber

  #2592817 28-Oct-2020 16:49
Send private message

I have no doubt you aren't making my recent error, where I didn't correctly identify a failing server drive.  Trying to replace a SAS HDD with a SATA SSD doesn't work!

 

PSA: On HPE RAID controllers (and I would guess many others as well), you can have a SAS drive array and a SATA drive array working at the same time on the same controller.  You can't mix drive types in a single array.  I would have sent the SATA drives back, but the helpful client opened them all in advance of my arrival.  I should know better than to think 'that job will only take 5 minutes'...




“Don't believe anything you read on the net. Except this. Well, including this, I suppose.” Douglas Adams



freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
80650 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 41031

Administrator
ID Verified
Trusted
Geekzone
Lifetime subscriber

  #2592823 28-Oct-2020 17:08
Send private message

I am adding larger SAS drives and creating a different logical device for temp backup use. The existing SAS drives from the current backup logical device will be used as hot spare for the main storage logical drive (RAID 5). All drives are SAS and all are HPE originals.  




Referral links: Quic Broadband (free setup code: R587125ERQ6VE) | Samsung | AliExpress | Wise | Sharesies 

 

Support Geekzone by subscribing (browse ads-free), or making a one-off or recurring donation through PressPatron.

 

nztim
4012 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2710

ID Verified
Trusted
TEAMnetwork
Subscriber

  #2592836 28-Oct-2020 17:35
Send private message

freitasm:

I am adding larger SAS drives and creating a different logical device for temp backup use. The existing SAS drives from the current backup logical device will be used as hot spare for the main storage logical drive (RAID 5). All drives are SAS and all are HPE originals.  



Glad to see you look after your servers!




Any views expressed on these forums are my own and don't necessarily reflect those of my employer. 



freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
80650 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 41031

Administrator
ID Verified
Trusted
Geekzone
Lifetime subscriber

  #2592839 28-Oct-2020 17:39
Send private message

The main reason to use the existing drives as hot backup and not as storage capacity in the RAID is that all these drives are from the same batch / age - the likelihood of more than one drive failing at the same time is higher than using drives from different batches / ages. This is one of the reasons why so many RAID 5 and RAID 6 fail miserably. This also means I have to order a couple of extra drives now and have them sent to Auckland for use at short notice. 




Referral links: Quic Broadband (free setup code: R587125ERQ6VE) | Samsung | AliExpress | Wise | Sharesies 

 

Support Geekzone by subscribing (browse ads-free), or making a one-off or recurring donation through PressPatron.

 

nztim
4012 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2710

ID Verified
Trusted
TEAMnetwork
Subscriber

  #2592865 28-Oct-2020 18:41
Send private message

freitasm:

The main reason to use the existing drives as hot backup and not as storage capacity in the RAID is that all these drives are from the same batch / age - the likelihood of more than one drive failing at the same time is higher than using drives from different batches / ages. This is one of the reasons why so many RAID 5 and RAID 6 fail miserably. This also means I have to order a couple of extra drives now and have them sent to Auckland for use at short notice. 



The other reason drives fail is smart array and drive firmware not been kept current espionage when HPE release advisories





Any views expressed on these forums are my own and don't necessarily reflect those of my employer. 

freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
80650 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 41031

Administrator
ID Verified
Trusted
Geekzone
Lifetime subscriber

  #2592872 28-Oct-2020 18:47
Send private message

I am pretty sure the firmware is updated. Even applied a new firmware to the array last week.

I am really more worried about having all drives being of the same age.




Referral links: Quic Broadband (free setup code: R587125ERQ6VE) | Samsung | AliExpress | Wise | Sharesies 

 

Support Geekzone by subscribing (browse ads-free), or making a one-off or recurring donation through PressPatron.

 

 
 
 
 

Want to support Geekzone and browse the site without the ads? Subscribe to Geekzone now (monthly, annual and lifetime options).
PolicyGuy
1820 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1769

ID Verified
Lifetime subscriber

  #2592941 28-Oct-2020 20:55
Send private message

Google published a paper on this quite a few years ago, making this exact point.

 

I can't find it now, but the two major take-home points were

 

  • If a drive fails, on the next day shift, remove all the drives from the same batch and bin them - they will fail soon.
    [Wait till the next day shift coz the night shift may not be concentrating properly (it's night time, OK) and might replace the wrong drive]
  • Never put two drives from the same batch into the same RAID string

Since Google's drive population is statistically indistinguishable from the universe of disk drives, this is soundly based advice

freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
80650 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 41031

Administrator
ID Verified
Trusted
Geekzone
Lifetime subscriber

  #2593173 29-Oct-2020 11:49
Send private message

Thanks all - new drives installed without servers rebooting.




Referral links: Quic Broadband (free setup code: R587125ERQ6VE) | Samsung | AliExpress | Wise | Sharesies 

 

Support Geekzone by subscribing (browse ads-free), or making a one-off or recurring donation through PressPatron.

 

gehenna
8667 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 3883

Moderator
Trusted
Lifetime subscriber

  #2593238 29-Oct-2020 12:39
Send private message

This is for the subscriber only Plex library content right?

 

 

hio77
'That VDSL Cat'
13036 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 3896

ID Verified
Trusted
Lizard Networks
Subscriber

  #2593362 29-Oct-2020 15:14
Send private message

more disk space? woo! i can start uploading larger pictures again!

 

 

 

Don't worry @michaelmurfy i'll ensure there are some for you to resize ;)




#include <std_disclaimer>

 

Any comments made are personal opinion and do not reflect directly on the position my current or past employers may have. 

networkn
Networkn
32862 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 15453

ID Verified
Trusted
Lifetime subscriber

  #2593528 29-Oct-2020 19:23
Send private message

gehenna:

 

This is for the subscriber only Plex library content right?

 

 

 

 

Oh, I thought it was to accomodate the gz pr0n server (which I guess could be served via plex) :)

 

 

 
 
 
 

Support Geekzone with one-off or recurring donations Donate via PressPatron.
freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
80650 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 41031

Administrator
ID Verified
Trusted
Geekzone
Lifetime subscriber

  #2593699 29-Oct-2020 22:24
Send private message

Not only had the new drives installed this morning, I've done some maintenance on the existing RAID array (setting a different strip size than previously set) and changing the Read/Write cache ratio (something I should've done a while ago).

 

And no downtime. Pretty happy with today's work.




Referral links: Quic Broadband (free setup code: R587125ERQ6VE) | Samsung | AliExpress | Wise | Sharesies 

 

Support Geekzone by subscribing (browse ads-free), or making a one-off or recurring donation through PressPatron.

 

Create new topic








Geekzone Live »

Try automatic live updates from Geekzone directly in your browser, without refreshing the page, with Geekzone Live now.


Updates »

Are you subscribed to our RSS feed? You can download the latest headlines and summaries from our stories directly to your computer or smartphone by using a feed reader.








RSS feeds
Main feed
Forums feed
Copyright
©2002-2026 Geekzone®
Site features
Geekzone BI dashboard
Geekzone Badges
Geekzone Status Page

 

Site Information
Subscribe to Geekzone
Privacy Statement
Forum Usage Guidelines (FUG)
Advertising
Trademark and copyright